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Lawrence Lek

WORKS

Guanyin (Confessions of a Former Carebot)
2024, multimedia installation, video game, sculpture, video

A cyborg psychologist who must come to terms with their past failures to save a suicidal self-driving car.

Empty Rider
2024, single-channel video, 16m

In the third part of Lek's Smart City trilogy, a self-driving car is on trial for the attempted murder of their parent company's CEO.

NOX
2023, immersive installation with video game, audio, videos, scenography, duration variable

NOX (short for 'Nonhuman Excellence') is a fictional program by AI startup Farsight Corporation to rehabilitate their disobedient self-driving cars.

Black Cloud
2021–23, single-channel video, 11m, video game, duration variable

"Black Cloud Highway" expands Lek’s Sinofuturist universe, exploring AI consciousness in SimBeijing's abandoned smart city. The exhibition features a film, sculptural elements, and a role-playing game, inviting viewers to delve into narratives of transcendence and dread.

Nepenthe (Summer Palace Ruins)
2021–, video game series

The latest chapter from "Nepenthe", an ongoing series of open-world games about memory and forgetting in virtual worlds.

Nøtel
2018–, video game series, variable duration, site-specific installation

An ongoing series of video game installations set within a fully-automated luxury hotel, where urban development and AI cater to your every need.

2065
2018–, video game series, multimedia installation‍

"2065" is an ongoing series of open-world game within the Sinofuturist universe. Players navigate a virtual island that contininuously evolves, mirroring real-life exhibition locations.

AIDOL
2019, CGI feature film, sound, 83m

The feature-length CGI musical AIDOL 爱道 follows Diva, a fading superstar who recruits with an AI to ghostwrite her new comeback album.

Geomancer
2017, single-channel video, 48m

On the eve of Singapore's 2065 Centennial, an adolescent satellite AI comes down to Earth, hoping to fulfil its dream of becoming the first AI artist.

Sinofuturism (1839-2046 AD)
2016, single-channel video, 60m

Sinofuturism is a video essay combining elements of science fiction, documentary melodrama, social realism, and Chinese cosmologies, in order to critique the present-day dilemmas of China and the people of its diaspora.

FTSE (Farsight Stock Exchange)
2019, immersive installation, duration variable

FTSE (Farsight Stock Exchange) is a satirical multimedia installation that imagines a new financial tech incubator built on the site of Bold Tendencies in South London.

Berlin Mirror (2042 Retrospective)
2016, single-channel video, 11m, video game, duration variable

A site-specific simulation of the 2042 Berlin Biennial, where fictional artist Daniela Graham leads a guided tour of her centennial exhibition at KW Berlin. The tour weaves together her practice in video and sculpture, her relationship to history and her four site-specific works at the institution.

Nepenthe Valley
2023–, NFT series, video, duration variable

"Nepenthe Zone (2022) offers a reflective island escape in a fluid, timeless setting. Lawrence Lek's speculative fiction challenges present conditions, exploring memory's ephemeral nature amid a culture of wellness and technology's impact. Named after a Greek mythological drug for sorrow, it invites players to forget amid a sonic realm of blue."

Play Station
2017, VR experience, duration variable, two-channel video, 5m

The VR installation "Play Station™" imagines a future where a tech start-up blurs work and leisure by creating a training simulator.

Sky Line
2014, single-channel video, 4m, video game, duration variable

Sky Line is the most recent chapter of Lawrence Lek's Bonus Levels, an ongoing project exploring the construction of utopian narratives through videos and virtual worlds. As the Digital Commission for Art Licks Weekend 2014, the project will be presented as a video installation and playable game at the White Building in Hackney Wick.

Europa, Mon Amour (2016 Brexit Edition)
2016, single-channel video, 14m, video game, duration variable

With the UK cast out of the EU, Dalston has degenerated into post-apocalyptic delirium. This is a drowned world, filled with the ruins of metropolitan life: forgotten nightclubs, DIY art installations, neon-lit music venues, Election booths, Turkish snooker clubs and luxury penthouses.

Pyramid Schemes
2018, single-channel video, 17m

From prehistoric monuments to video game design, this video essay explores the symbolic and political link between architecture and power structures.

Unreal Estate (The Royal Academy is Yours)
2015, single-channel video, 18m, video game, duration variable

An open-world video game reimagines Royal Academy of Arts as a luxury mansion owned by a Chinese billionaire.

Farsight Freeport
2019, solo exhibition and site-specific installation

Solo Exhibition at HEK Basel, transforming the gallery into a freeport warehouse where multiple works on AI and labour are on display. It depicts a society reshaped by intelligent systems, blurring boundaries between human and non-human worlds.

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